A council backed down today over a fine issued to a young mother for feeding the ducks with her 17-month-old son, pledging to adopt a "common sense approach".

Vanessa Kelly, 26, was given a £75 fixed penalty notice for littering last Tuesday, after a warden saw her and her son throwing bread at a duck pond in Smethwick Hall Park in the West Midlands.

Ms Kelly, from Oldbury, West Midlands, was told she was not in a "designated feeding area", but today Sandwell Council dropped the fine and promised to improved signage in the park.

The council's deputy leader, Councillor Darren Cooper, said: "We will take a common sense approach to this matter and for this reason we will not pursue payment for Vanessa Kelly's fixed penalty notice while we improve signs at Smethwick Hall Park.

"The new signs will make it abundantly clear that feeding of waterfowl is not allowed at all in this park and that anyone observed feeding the geese and any other birds will receive a fixed penalty notice."

Ms Kelly said: "I am delighted, but it is just common sense because they didn't have a leg to stand on.

"There were no signs to say that feeding the ducks was classed as littering so it was only a matter of time before they backed down.

"I would have gone to court if they had pursued it - there was no way I was going to pay."

She added: "I won't be going back to that park again. I will take my son to a different park from now on."

Mr Cooper said Canada Geese cause "major problems" in the park, adding: "Nearby residents complain they are noisy, dirty and aggressive. Feeding them only encourages them to congregate in the park. It also attracts vermin."

The council said it would not be pursuing payment of fines given to six other people for feeding wildfowl in the park and would not issue any new fines for bird feeding until new signs have been erected.